The participation of the Molecular Recognition Shared Resources core at Vanderbilt University is critical for the studies proposed in these projects. The core support is required mainly in three areas: 1. to produce, purify, and characterize murine or recombinant monoclonal antibodies to various basement membrane components--in particular to various type IV collagen and laminin isoforms; 2. to provide training and assistance for the use of a Biacore 2000 instrument, to analyze the interactions between collagen type IV and its natural ligands or pathogenic antibodies; 3. to provide assistance in the scale-up of recombinant protein production, using the baculovirus expression system. In addition, the core will maintain a central repository of well-characterized monoclonal antibodies against basement membrane molecules, and distribute them to investigators. When necessary, the core will conjugate monoclonal antibodies and other proteins (NC1 domains) to reporter molecules (e.g. fluorescent probes and biotin), for use in immunofluorescence, flow cytometry, immunoprecipitation, and other analyses. The core will provide equipment and resources not available in any of the investigators laboratories (e.g. the BIAcore 2000 instrument, human and murine phage display ScFv libraries). The core also has qualified personnel which will ensure consistent, reliable production of monoclonal antibodies at relatively low cost, which will be used in all the projects proposed. This arrangement takes advantage of available resources in the most cost-efficient manner.